Canada Post's new $200 community mailbox fee causes stir in Vaughan

Vaughan Citizen

A policy recently instituted by Canada Post will cost homebuilders in new developments beginning Jan. 1 a $200 surcharge per home for the community mailboxes the crown corporation installs.
It’s fully expected homebuilders will pass along the $200-per mailbox charge to those who purchase the new homes, adding to the bottom line price of those houses.
“It’s their call,” said Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton of whether or not developers will pass on the costs. “For decades, we have paid the majority of the costs. We are saying that going forward we need to recover some of those costs so we can focus on providing mail service.”
Canada Post, which lost a reported $327 million in 2011, its first year of losses after 16 consecutive years of profits, is looking for ways to raise revenues.
The corporation has been steadily seeing declines in delivery of so-called “snail” mail and the surcharge on so-called superboxes — $8,000 for a typical 40 mailbox unit — will help boost revenues.
The move by Canada Post does not impress Councillor Marilyn Iafrate, who represents Maple/Kleinburg, the area of Vaughan poised to see the most dramatic residential growth in the near future.
Ms Iafrate said the $200 charge was “ludicrous” and went further, explaining that Canada Post should instead have considered administering a fee to Canadians who receive door-to-door delivery instead of those purchasing homes in new communities who must go to the super mailboxes to pick up their mail.
“I just don’t see how this is going to encourage more use of Canada Post in the future,” she said, adding that the community mailbox service was “substandard”.
Ron Olson, president of the Canadian Home Builders Association, criticized the new fee, saying the fee only adds to the affordability of new homes.
“It came out of nowhere. We were blindsided by it,” said Mr. Olson, a Saskatoon developer. “We are hoping to have it reversed.”
The mailboxes have raised hackles lately in Vaughan as they’ve been subject to an ad mail war between the crown corporation and local citizens fed up with the amount of ad mail appearing in their mail boxes.
Back in October, Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco, who represents Concord and Thornhill, was disappointed by the piles of litter growing around a slew of super mailboxes in her ward.
“It’s a disgrace,” she said at the time.
Blame for the garbage strewn about the ground around the mailboxes appeared to fall equally upon Canada Post, which said it was merely delivering the mail and was not responsible for what happened to it after delivery, and to the citizens who simply dumped it on the ground after deciding they didn’t want it.
No solution appeared to have been found as Canada Post insisted it would continue to deliver the ad mail and citizens continued to dump it on the ground.